1 The Jesus Banquet Text: Luke 14:12-23, The Parable of the Dinner Party For a few minutes I am going to talk to you about food, or more accurately, the present problem of global hunger. ooOoo In June this year, Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations made it clear that the “world stands on the brink of a food crisis worse than any seen for at least 50 years”, and “Unless immediate action is taken, it is increasingly clear that there is an impending global food emergency that could have long term effects on hundreds of millions of children and adults.” The Secretary of the United Nations went on to say, “Even in countries with abundant food, we see risks of disruption in the food supply”. Likewise, Maximo Torero, the chief economist of the United Nations‟ Food and Agricultural Organization pointed out recently that „the world‟s food systems are under threat as never before in recent times as the (Covid-19) pandemic and lockdowns have hampered people‟s ability to harvest, buy and sell food. According to recent UN reports, worldwide, harvests are “healthy” and supplies of food, “robust”. Nevertheless, because of the Covid-19 pandemic the global food distribution system is failing. Local markets where most people buy their groceries are now vulnerable to disruptions from lockdowns. 2 Increasing unemployment and the loss of income associated with lockdowns and the price of basic foods are also putting food out of reach for many struggling people. Not only that! Lockdowns are now slowing harvests, millions of seasonal labourers are unable to find work, food waste has reached damaging levels, with farmers forced to dump perishable produce as the result of supply chain problems, and meat industry plants have been forced to close in some countries. In addition, natural disasters, armed and violent conflict, plant and animal plagues (like the arrival of swarms of locusts in East Africa) and the climate crisis have all exacerbated the problems of present food shortages and global hunger. According to a June 9/20 article in The Guardian newspaper, “About 50 million people risk falling into extreme poverty this year owing to the pandemic, but the long term effects will be even worse, as poor nutrition in childhood causes lifelong suffering. Already, one in five children around the world is stunted in their growth by age 5, and millions more are likely to suffer the same fate if poverty rates soar”. ooOoo Now all that is grim news – so grim we may feel a bit pessimistic and overwhelmed by it all. Yet, there is reason to hope. First, there‟s hope in the United Nations recently laying out a three-point program to stave off immediate disaster. 3 The UN is calling on governments to prioritize food supply chains; to strengthen social protections so that young children, pregnant and breastfeeding women and other at-risk groups including children who are not receiving school meals in the pandemic lockdown to receive adequate nutrition; and to invest in the future by building a global recovery (from the pandemic) that prioritizes healthy and environmentally sustainable food. ooOoo Second, there‟s hope to be found in the worlds‟ religions, including the Christian churches, who have taken on the responsibility of addressing global hunger. I am pleased and proud to be able to report that the United Church of Canada is one of those churches – in fact, our church is a global leader speaking out and taking action on the world‟s food crisis. Let me share just a bit of what our denomination has said and is doing at the present time. Addressing the issue of “Food Security” the United Church has stated publicly, “We are called to transform our perspective on food – from food as a commodity to food as a right”. Think about that for a moment: food, not as a commodity, but as a human right. It must be said that the United Church didn‟t simply pluck those revolutionary words out of the air. On the contrary, the foundational principles of such statements are ancient, dating back to Israel‟s prophet Isaiah, who spoke these words, recorded in the book of Isaiah 58:7-8 (NIRV): 4 Share your food with hungry people. Provide homeless people with a place to stay. Give naked people clothes to wear. Provide for the needs of your own family. Then the light of my blessing will shine on you like the rising sun. And the United Church isn‟t just talking the talk. It‟s walking the walk 1. through advocacy 2. by working with our worldwide Mission and Service partners to address global hunger, 3. by providing nutritious food to the hungry and starving in the midst of pandemic and humanitarian crises, and 4. encouraging fair and sustainable systems. Third, there‟s hope to be found in this morning‟s celebration of the sacrament of communion, especially when we celebrate it in the style of the Jesus Banquet. Let me explain. Thanks to the cutting edge biblical and historical scholarship of the 21st century we now know beyond a shadow of scholarly doubt that a central feature of Jesus‟ proclamation of the kingdom of God on earth had to do with food, or more accurately “meals” – i.e. not just any old meals but lavish meals in the style of a wedding banquet or state banquet. 5 We also know that Jesus insisted that nobody be excluded from his banquets. All comers were welcome, especially those who had been rejected by polite, religious society: namely, those poor wretches living on the margins and holding on by their fingertips: the sick and the blind - the lame and the leper - the loved, the loveless and unlovable – women and children, the just and the unjust, slave and free, city slicker and country dweller, the clean and unclean – tax collector and taxpayer - peasant and pauper. Let me repeat: all were welcome at Jesus‟ banquet table, no questions asked. All the guests were treated as equals. All ate and drank their fill. In short, Jesus‟ table fellowship symbolized the egalitarian and social justice values of the kingdom of God that he envisioned and preached, including his opposition to the values of Caesar and the Roman Empire, chief of which was Jesus‟ uncompromising insistence that everybody should have enough of life‟s necessities to live with decency and dignity. We know too that Jesus‟ adversaries, particularly those who collaborated with Caesar and Rome‟s authorities, despised his table fellowship. Why? Because, among other things, his banqueting practices were challenging the political and social status quo and upsetting their religious, ethical and theological applecart. Believe you me, it was no accident that his critics attempted to discredit him with the labels “glutton and drunkard”. (see Mt. 11:19; Lk. 7:34) After Jesus‟ premature and untimely death, his disciples, friends and followers continued his table fellowship as an egalitarian and symbolic proclamation of the kingdom of God on earth, which included a rejection of the values of Caesar and 6 Empire. These friends and followers of Jesus ate together regularly, even before they started to conduct worship services. As time moved on this manner of table fellowship became a sacrament. In other words, these meals involved a subversive „sacramentum‟ or an oath of loyalty to Jesus the Anointed One and the loving, compassionate, faith-filled and justice-seeking values of the kingdom of God, all of which were pitted over and against the „sacramentum‟ of Rome – i.e. the loyalty oath everybody living in the Roman Empire was compelled to make to Caesar as emperor, god, saviour, bringer of peace...but in reality, violent, conqueror, occupier, enslaver, exploiter and oppressor. So, in a real and pragmatic way, the early Christian sacramentum – the oath of loyalty to Jesus the Anointed One – included, among other things, caring for others in real and tangible ways. We know that became a reality because historical records clearly show that, while most of the residents of ancient cities fled to the countryside during times of death-dealing epidemics and plagues, countless Christians chose to stay and put themselves at risk in those disease-ridden cities by providing basic nursing care to their sick and suffering neighbours. Part of their sacramentum – their oath of loyalty to Jesus the Anointed One - continued to be involved with serving meals to the poor and those on the fringes of society. In fact, all employed Christians were required to donate 2 or 3 days‟ wages so that the church could provide nutritious and healthy meals to the down and out. Again, historical records show that the Christian community in ancient Rome fed a nutritious weekly meal to 10,000 widows and orphans. 7 Little wonder it was widely said, “See how these Christians love one another.” ooOoo This meal tradition – the Jesus Banquet - dates back over 2000 years to Jesus himself, and to the earliest Christian communities. Somehow – and perhaps, unfortunately, over the centuries that followed, Jesus‟ table fellowship, and the real meals served to the poorest of the poor by the earliest Christian communities, evolved to focus on only one of Jesus‟ meals – his final meal – namely, the Last Supper or the Lord‟s Supper - and its rather limited and questionable tradition of Jesus dying for our sins – i.e. willingly sacrificing his body and shedding his blood for the forgiveness of your sins. Why? Because, according to the final meal tradition, blood atonement was what an angry God in heaven demanded – that‟s the price Jesus had to pay so that we might be forgiven sins real and imagined and have life (or perhaps after-life) in a spiritual or heavenly kingdom of God.